The Family Lab: Experiments in Parenting and Home Management

Motherhood is a team sport. We need coaches, heroes, teammates, both in the game and on the bench, ready to come in. In this episode, I share lessons from some  of my earliest motherhood mentors, from how to pursue your passions to how to keep kids from making such a mess.   

Everyone always says moms are true heroes, but is it true? Big surprise, I think motherhood is the quintessential hero's journey. This episode explores the idea of the adventure of motherhood, dragon-slaying and all. 

Everything is more fun with a game—even household chores. I've always invented cleaning games, with my siblings, for myself, and with my own kids. So I thought I'd share my Top 20.  

My friend Molly Liggett and I talk about the many experiments we've tried over the last decade or so to help our kids learn how to manage money. We talk about allowance vs. paying per chore, and we get into the nitty gritty details about how much we pay our kids, what we expect them to do around the house, what they pay for themselves and what we buy for them, plus what we do when they owe us mone...

This month at the Family Lab, we're teaching kids how to manage money. This week, we talked to Lauren Santagate of The Anti-Chore Moms about her family's financial system: how her kids earn, spend, save, and invest using the Greenlight card. Lauren explains her system of paying her kids when they add value to their family, their community, or to their own brains!  You can find more information abo...

It's Money Management month at the Family Lab, and we're kicking it off with author Richard Eyre to talk about the family economy he and his wife Linda set up decades ago.  In this episode, we talk about how to avoid raising entitled children and about why teaching kids to manage money is such a great way to teach them self reliance and responsibility. He'll share how their kids earned money, how...

Potty training sounds scary, but it can actually be a great time to connect with your kid and build their confidence and self reliance. Today's guest is a firecracker of a human--Jamie Glowacki. She's a potty training expert who wrote the book I wish I had when I was potty training, called Oh Crap: Potty Training. She also hosts a fabulous podcast called Oh Crap! With Jamie.   Jamie is the first t...

We're talking oral hygiene! My friend and our family dental hygienist, Megan Robbins, teaches us how to help our kids keep their teeth sparkly clean, including a demo with some giant choppers—so you might want to watch this one on YouTube rather than just listening. She'll answer some of your burning questions, like whether you should you floss first or brush first? Which would win in a fight--reg...

Kids can be gross. And as parents, we're their first line of defense to teach them how to wash those hands, scrub those stinky feet, wipe those bums, control their body odor, trim those toenails–all the things. To help us out, I invited my good friends Megan Robbins (a dental hygienist and one of the cleanest people I know) and Laura Nielson (a pediatric nurse) to help us lead our kids from helper...

It's that time again, for an update of the experiments we've been trying in the Archibald home. In this edition, I talk about our latest new kitchen-cleaning system, our weekly family cleaning projects, our dinner menu system, monthly check-ins with the kids, family meetings, a college tour, fall sports, my son's hat business, a home organization project, water aerobics and more!    You can find m...

Welcome to Season 8! This whole season we'll be talking about how to teach our kids to eventually take care of themselves on their way to becoming self-reliant, responsible adults. This episode will help you take the first step: evaluating what your kids are already taking charge of and where they have room to grow.    I introduce you to the system I've been using with my own kids for years, and s...

Ever wonder which of your holiday traditions are actually the most meaningful to your kids? For this episode, I went straight to the source and I asked five (incredible) teenagers what traditions they love the best: from that pesky elf to the jolly old elf himself, family bonding and family fights, re-enacting the nativity, and sibling sleepovers. It's an episode filled with music and merriment. ...

A conversation with organization genius Jen Martin, founder of Reset Your Nest, about how to align our home organization with our goals, values, and routines; how to set up different organizational zones in our kitchens; and how to create systems for our comings and goings, among other organizing tips. You can find Jen Martin at resetyournest.com and on Instagram @reset_your_nest And for another g...

Stuck in the never-ending logistics of running a home? It's time to shift to a strategy-first perspective so you can build systems that work.    This episode talks about how to shift your thinking. Hence, you start with a strategy, then consider all the different tactics that could accomplish your strategy, and finally think about the logistics of getting it done.    For episodes with lots of grea...

Tired of meltdowns? And I'm not just talking about your kids! Emily Hamblin is here to help us deal with our big emotions and teach our kids to deal with theirs. She gives practical tips about how to talk to our kids about their emotions, how to identify the skills they're lacking, and how to teach emotional regulation and empathy. Then we both share experiments you can try at home. For more resou...

Join a coven of Halloween experts--my mother and her three sisters--for a costume parade through history as they reminisce and share photos about Halloweens past. We talk about the antics of my Grandpa, the Halloween king, and his legacy of papier mache and discuss useful skills like how to black out your teeth and create a lifelike beard with nothing but vaseline and coffee grinds. 😂

My friend Ashley McGavin and I share all the experiments we tried this summer–in Ashley's case with a brand new baby! We talk about feeding kids in the summer, keeping them entertained, summer jobs, chores, personal development, a senior trip, and how to achieve a throwback 80s and 90s summer.    We both have 5 kids, but our families are in very different stages. My kids now range from 10 to 19, a...

What's for dinner tonight? How about tomorrow? This episode helps you answer both questions--with favorite rollover meals from me and my guests Andrea Clark and Hillary Hess. Rollover meals allow you to take parts of one meal and roll it into another meal, to save time, money, and the tedium of leftovers. Hillary Hess shares great recipes and resources at helpingofhappiness.com Andrea Clark offers...

Archibald Experiments: Back to School Routine Roundup   https://youtu.be/vRngguIVeas   Transitioning from a lazy summer schedule to a back to school routine is no joke. So I went through past podcast episodes looking for experiments we've tried here in the Archibald home to make our morning, afternoon and bedtime routines run more smoothly during the school year, from waking kids up to getting the...

Dana K. White is a decluttering expert for the rest of us. The ones who struggle. We discuss her decluttering process, her Cinderella story from slob to home management guru, clutter thresholds, and teaching our kids to declutter (or at least attempting to).

Mary Van Geffen is spicy. Which is why she's made it her mission as a parenting coach to help parents understand their own spicy children. In this episode, Mary teaches how to manage our own reactions as we parent these amazing kids. 

Bryce Reddy is a family therapist specializing in maternal mental health, and one of the most quotable people I've ever interviewed. In this eisode, she shares her insights about mom guilt, judgement, and how we can support each other.

Jessica Jackson's framework for transitioning from surviving to thriving might just transform your whole way of looking at motherhood and life (because survival mode isn't exclusive to motherhood). Best of all, Jessica has given me words to describe the transition from survival mode to re-entry to normalizing to exploring to thriving and even soaring. Don't worry. She'll explain the whole thing.

This week, we discuss the challenge of managing family photos and its importence. Various moms share their insights into how they organize their pictures.  At the Family Lab we investigate all things parenting and home management. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video episodes and shorts @thefamilylabpodcast , and find us on Instagram @familylabpodcast . You can also find us at familylabpodca...

This week, we discuss the balance of cultivating children's talents while also allowing them to explore and fail, sharing insights on prioritizing activities and knowing when to push or let go.    At the Family Lab, we investigate all things parenting and home management. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video episodes and shorts  @thefamilylabpodcast , and find us on Instagram  @familylabpodc...